Scary monsters and sideshow freaks in Daniel Crosier's Showdevils

There are precious few opportunities in life to assist a human puzzle piece and his comely, sword-swallowing sidekick defeat a mutant goldfish. When such an opportunity does arise, it's best to seize it without concern for danger or reward. Luckily, in the case of Daniel Crosier's Showdevils Kickstarter campaign, the dangers are few and the rewards many, so everyone who loves comics, freak shows and the absurd can participate without hesitation.

"We've been granted this license from The Enigma, the sideshow performer -- he's essentially a walking, talking, action figure -- and his partner, Serana Rose," Crosier says. "It was a fantastic opportunity to take advantage of."

He describes the project as "Scooby Doo meets Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects," which qualifies as one of the more ludicrously twisted set-ups possible. In that bizarre world; he pits those "walking, talking actions figures" against some fittingly fucked-up adversaries.

"Our villains are amazing. There's so much depth there! Fecal matter demon, goldfish man -- lots of interesting well-developed characters," he says. "Obviously, we like going for the ridiculous and absurd."

With the first issue of the series already available, Crosier joined forces with local artists Jolyon Yates and Stan Yan to make the second iteration even better. To cover the costs of printing the comic, he's turning to fans -- of both the artists' work and of the Show Devils -- to make sure the four-color adventures of the world-famous sideshow performers continues.

"Without public support, endeavors like these do not happen," he says. "It's really great if a community of creatives and [fans] can participate in this. Essentially, now you're participating in the actual creation."

So what do you get for your contribution, besides the satisfaction of knowing you helped one hell of a weird comic come into being? The incentives range from the relatively obvious, such as copies of the book and prints of the art, to the outrageous, including a dinner date with the real-life Enigma and Serana Rose. If you're in need of a Halloween costume for years to come, the $100 level gets you a limited-edition Enigma mask sculpted by Hollywood concept artist Jordu Schell. Don't think about it too long, though: The fundraiser ends Wednesday, April 10, and if they don't hit the $4,000 goal, they don't get any of the money that's been pledged.